02 Sep Sell what people already want, not your mission

Having worked in climate, environment and sustainability communications for years, you start to see the same pattern: the idea that raising awareness is enough to incite action no longer holds. This topic will not come as a surprise to all those in the ‘climate community’ who are pushing hard to get their stories out there while the number of communication channels shrink around them.   

The conversation has been catching up over the last year. There is less dread and fear mongering and more about the real economic benefits to communities. This shift makes storytelling a lot more politically neutral especially in countries (and you know which one) where even the idea of clean energy is a politics thing.

The rally cry that came from COP30 – “from ambition to action” –  is a great motivator, but for those of us working across multiple clients and environmental sectors there’s something more fundamental that I see always being missed.

Brands both in the sustainability sector and in social causes have long since put a lot of focus on their manifestos, the missions, their visions. The uncomfortable truth is that customers and audiences don’t care about you. They care about what they want. What problem they need to solve at that moment. Good branding doesn’t change that – it works with it.

I have been working with non-profit causes for nearly two decades. The one thing they learnt quickly was how to better understand their audiences. We would apply the learnings from customer acquisition strategies in my early advertising days to donor acquisition campaigns with great success. Once a customer was onboarded we would then implement retention strategies to build long term relationships.

Those relationships were built on understanding their needs and desires and simply helping them to achieve that. Some people wanted community others wanted recognition, whatever the need, we would try and build brand pathways to help them get there.

In the environment space, every single brand I work on today has been starting to go through the same realignment. They are essentially pivoting to customer/audience centricity and this process not only reinvigorates their communications but also their teams.

The process is genuinely simple – start treating your audience like people. Your product, service, or story might be very technical in nature but these people are not robots. They are busy, they want to be engaged, some maybe even want to be entertained. And they don’t want to be buried in long-winded paragraphs of elitist prose. 

Precision versus padding

There are so many studies about clarity in communications. (Big fan of this one Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilised Irrespective of Necessity) This is not adjust about reducing the use of complex words (notice I didn’t say utilising…) but more about increasing the density of precise words. Words with real meaning that clearly communicate the thing you do and ideally, with character and tone.

This process of realignment begins at the start – the point of when you are determining what your organisation does, what are its values, and what is its purpose. Look at these things through the lens of the audience you serve and the outcome will be more precise. What you learn out of this process helps you live your brand because it helps your audiences.

Dig into what your ‘customers’ problems are. What are they trying to achieve. What are they trying to avoid? And then simply pair this with what you do that either helps them achieve or avoid these things.

The resulting brands have been energised, differentiated and distinctive. Which makes it fun for those who work there too

A short summary:

Lead with the want, not the why.

Your purpose and values are inspiring as internal drives but they are not the headline. The headline is what you can do for them. Can you make their day easier, can you save them money, can you give them some status. Your brand is the route to that. It is the feeling you give your customers.

Concrete real things beats abstractions.

I can’t count the amount of times I have read the words: empowering, enabling, supporting. These are nothing words. They are hiding the real value you offer behind big words. The brain glosses over all of it because it is intangible. Get tangible. Show the thing you do.

Give people something to do

What is your call to action? A campaign that inspires you but leaves you with nothing to do has failed. Work out what your funnel is, where you want your audience to go next, and send them there. If this pathway has been carefully designed as the path of least resistance – even better.

You are not the hero

Everyone wants to be a bold disrupter or the hero. And for some brands this can work. It’s an exciting path. But being quietly competent can be more sticky. Boring in the right, way can be a strategy. 

Match your message to your audience

Get to know your audience deeply. They are the hero in this story and your job is to help them achieve success. Speak to them in channels and through voices that appeal to them.  You can still use clever communications to get their attention but follow up with real empathy and understanding.

If you want to chat about audiences and value propositions get in touch.